India Travel Blog Newsletter is sent approximately once a month (often, less frequently), summarizing the previous month’s activity and giving a glimpse of the coming month on the website. Subscribe to the newsletter by keying in your email address in the box on the top of the sidebar. Here is a copy of this month’s newsletter, dispatched today.
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Hi,
Hope the summer vacation marks the beginning of travel season for you. The hills are calling, so here is a desktop calendar wallpaper from the highlands of South India. Download April calendar wallpaper – an image from the tea gardens of Munnar.
Here is a quick look at the updates on India Travel Blog in the recent past.
Photo Essays
Also see regular addition of images on the paintedstork facebook photo albums.
Flying in Coorg! Read the experiences of taking off in an ultralight aircraft in Coorg and flying over the hills at 100kph at a height of over a kilometer.
Photography Tours
It is now more than a year since I joined hands with my colleague, wildlife photographer Shreeram MV to began Darter Photography, which conducts photography tours and workshops. We now do regular photography workshops in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Here is a quick look at our upcoming tours. Also see an faq on what our tours are all about.
- Landscapes of Munnar. Learn to make beautiful images of landscapes
- Tigers Reserver – We have two tours lined up to photograph tigers in their heartland – Tadoba & Bandhavgarh
- Bhadra Wilderness – A wildlife photography workshop to learn to appreaciate our biodiversity and photograph them.
- Lahaul & Spiti – Amazing mountain landscapes; too good to believe!
I do hope we will meet in one of our photography excursions soon. Happy Travelling!
India Travel Blog Newsletter is sent approximately once a month (sometimes less frequently), summarizing the previous month’s activity and giving a glimpse of the coming month on the website. Subscribe to the newsletter by keying in your email address in the box on the top of the sidebar. Here is a copy of this month’s newsletter, dispatched today.
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Hello Travellers!
The monsoon is almost behind us and four months of travel season is about to begin. It is already time to plan for a series of holidays coming up in the next three months. Where are you going this winter?
Here is a list of updates on India Travel Blog since the time last newsletter was sent almost three months ago, which may offer you some travel ideas.
Stories and Photo Essays
October Calendar Wallpaper: This month’s desktop calendar wallpaper is an image of beautiful backwaters of Kerala. Download it for your desktop here
Temples of Badami: Read about the rock cut temples and amazingly beautiful landscapes of the small town of Badami, in North Karnataka. The red sandstone cliffs of Badami are home to structures that are more than a millennium old. The deep crevasses in the sandstone cliffs and a huge lake add an element of surprise. 
Chadar Trek: Chadar is an amazing trek of walking on a river when it freezes over. Every winter, when the road to Zanskar is buried under deep snow, people of the valley use the river like a road to connect with rest of the world. The walk on the frozen river is exciting, but unpredictable conditions of ice create obstacles and difficulties along the way. Read the story and see images of walking on the ice, popularly called Chadar Trek.
Travel Photography Article: Read the travel photography article on how even the most simplest subjects can make beautiful images.
Chandni Chowk: An hour’s evening walk in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk will gives you glimpse of its ancient heritage, mixed with its struggle to grow modern. Here is an account of short walk in this well-known street, through red fort, a gurudwara, mosques, food joints and the street life.
Photo Essay – Mountain Children: A compilation of images of beautiful and happy children of the mountainous regions of India.
Photo Essay – Kerala Backwaters: A collection of images of the famous backwaters of Kerala, near Alleppey.
Photography Tours
As the travel season begins, we have a long list of photography-centric tours coming up in the next three months. Led be pro photographers, our tours always have small groups which help us interact with everyone in the group closely. This enables us to have photography enthusiasts at all levels – beginners, amateurs as well as serious and experienced photographers – to get the maximum out of the tour. Non photographers are always welcome. I will look forward to seeing you in one of our tours in the next couple of months.
October 2011 
Agumbe Rainforests – Oct 30th to Nov 1st: Experience the place which gets the highest rainfall in South India, get up-close with diverse endemic species of the region and interact with researchers studying these forests. And possibly see and photograph the king of these forests, the aptly named King Cobra. Read full details.
November 2011
Hampi – Nov 5 to 7: With the onset of winter, one of our most popular tours is now back. See the amazing landscapes, the rich wildlife and beautiful architecture of Hampi with a photographer’s eye. Full details.
Photography Workshop: The next edition of our extremely popular photography workshop is happening on the weekend of November 19 and 20. See more details.
Birding in Goa: Everyone goes to Goa for beaches. But we know this small state better, which has some beautiful forests in the hills and a rich riverine system. Join us in photographing the birds and other small wildlife in the forests and rivers of Goa, around Mahaveer WIldlife Sanctuary. Read more.
Rajasthan – Forts and Dunes: The beautiful Rajasthan needs no introduction. Join us on a trip that covers Rajasthan from one end to the other, from Jaipur to Jaisalmer, also covering Bikaner, Jodhpur and Udaipur. A tour you would not want to miss. Full details.
December 2011 
The Lions of Gir: Visit the last resort of the Asiatic Lions – the only place outside Africa where you can find lions. And unlike other big cats, they are far less elusive and the chances of sighting are high. It is a great place to photograph a rare species and go creative with your camera. Full details.
Varanasi – Ancient Traditions: We take you on a photography tour of an India that has refused to change with time, at the ghats and galis of Varanasi, where much of what Mark Twain described over a hundred years ago can still be witnessed. See details of the tour to Varanasi.
Wildlife of Kutch: Pink hues of flamingos, flocks of cranes taking off, mighty eagles waiting for the meal of the day, pelicans with their large beaks swimming gracefully with the much smaller ducks, harriers flying gracefully over the grasslands, herds of Wild Asses running in the vast desert, and foxes scuttling away with food for their playful kids. All this is only a glimpse of what Kutch can offer. See full details of the tour.
India Travel Blog Newsletter is sent approximately once a month (sometimes less frequently), summarizing the previous month’s activity and giving a glimpse of the coming month on the website. Subscribe to the newsletter by keying in your email address in the box on the top of the sidebar. Here is a copy of this month’s newsletter, dispatched yesterday.
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Hello Travellers!
Here is the July edition of India Travel Blog newsletter, bringing you latest updates on images, travel stories and photography tours.
July 2011 Calendar. The desktop calendar of July has an image of beautiful landscapes from Ladakh. Go here to download it for your desktop.
Photo Essay – monasteries of Ladakh. The Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh have a charm of their own. The congenial monks, fluttering prayer flags, lines of stupas, young monks running around in the monastery, exuberant annual festivals and the dramatic landscapes in which they are located, are a treat to the eyes. See images of monasteries and monks of Ladakh.
Photo Essay – People of Ladakh. Innocence and cheerful shows up on every face you encounter in Ladakh. Here is an attempt to capture the beautiful faces of Ladakh.
Travelogue – Lahaul and Spiti. Read a travelogue and see photos of amazing landscapes of Lahaul and Spiti, earlier published in a Japanese magazine in English.
Travel photography article – Using Flash. Here is an article on using flash in an effective manner and about times when it could be counterproductive to use flash.
Videos. See photo slideshows on youtube – a collection of images of beautiful India and on the treasures of Ladakh.
Photography Tours
We are now doing photography Tours a wide variety of places, bringing you plenty of photography opportunities.
Photographing Landscapes. India is a land of diverse and fascinating landscapes, varying from high mountains, green hills, arid desert lands, sea-scapes, rocky terrains and much more. This workshop help you make great landscape images next time you travel or even in your neighbourhood park. More details.
Ladakh – July 24th to 31st. This is the second edition of our tour of Ladakh after the first the highly popular first tour was completely booked and we still have had many more inquiries. Be ready to be blown away by this grand tour and come back with images like you have never taken before, from the places like you have never seen before! See more details of the Mountains and Monasteries Tour of Ladakh
Lahaul and Spiti – August 13 to 21st. One of the still unexplored and insanely beautiful stretch of the Indian Himalayas, Lahaul and Spiti is a valley of stark landscapes and high snowy peaks stretching to the sky. Gurgling rivers and crystal clear lakes dot the highlands of Lahaul, while an ancient civilization has survived for nearly thousand years and has preserved its culture against the onslaught of modernity in Spiti. The faraway valley connected only through a narrow road that traverses through mountains over 10,000 feet high, this region offers vistas and heritage that can keep a travel photographer in a click-frenzy for months together. Full details of the tour here.
Badami – August 5,6 and 7. Badami is known for its rock cut temples and a history dating back more than thousand years. Travel photographers see much more than just that. There are red sandstones glistening in the morning sun, waterfalls that come alive and tumble down the cliffs adjacent to the caves in the monsoon months, colonies of friendly people with photogenic face who are more than happy to be subjects for your camera, a rural life where you see women washing clothes in a lake next to men scrubbing a bullock’s hide, temples in leafy environs with roots of ficus trees drooping over the gopuras, brilliant landscapes of cliffs overlooking a lake,.. The list is very long. More details on our tour of Badami.